Global market for pirated software reaches $59 billion

A new study conducted by the Business Software Alliance — a software license enforcement and lobbying group formed by Microsoft — found that the global market for pirated software reached a commercial value of $59 billion in 2010. The massive figure represents a 14% increase over 2009. According to a survey of 15,000 PC users conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, most people do recognize intellectual property rights and prefer legal software to pirated software. According to the report, however, many users of pirated programs do not realize they are using unlicensed copies. “The software industry is being robbed blind,” said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman in a statement. “Nearly $59 billion worth of products were stolen last year — and the rates of theft are completely out of control in the world’s fastest-growing markets. The irony is people everywhere value intellectual property rights, but in many cases they don’t understand they are getting their software illegally.” Hit the break for the full press release.

Global survey finds too many people don’t understand they are stealing

Washington — May 12, 2011 —

Theft of software for personal computers leapt 14 percent globally in 2010 to a record commercial value of $59 billion, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) reported today in the 2010 BSA Global Software Piracy Study. That amount has nearly doubled in real terms since 2003. Emerging economies are the driving forces behind the trend, the report finds, because that is where PC shipments are growing fastest.

Software piracy is escalating in value even though large majorities of PC users around the world believe in intellectual property rights and prefer legal software to pirated software, according to surveys of approximately 15,000 PC users in 32 countries, conducted Ipsos Public Affairs as part of BSA’s report. But a startling finding is that too many people do not realize they are using unlicensed copies.

BSA has created a rich, interactive presentation that shows how these trends play out in 116 countries and regions around the world. It is featured at www.bsa.org/globalstudy.

“The software industry is being robbed blind,” said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman. “Nearly $59 billion worth of products were stolen last year — and the rates of theft are completely out of control in the world’s fastest-growing markets. The irony is people everywhere value intellectual property rights, but in many cases they don’t understand they are getting their software illegally.”

“Software piracy is an urgent problem for the whole economy, not just the software industry, because software is an essential tool of production,” Holleyman said. “Businesses of all sorts rely on software to run their operations. Properly licensed companies are being unfairly undercut when their competitors avoid overhead costs by stealing software tools.”

Key findings of the 2010 BSA Global Software Piracy Study:

While the number of PCs shipped to emerging economies in 2010 accounted for more than 50 percent of the world total, paid software licenses in emerging economies accounted for less than 20 percent of global sales.

Six years ago, the commercial value of software piracy in emerging economies accounted for less than one-third of the world total. Last year, at $32 billion, it accounted for more than half.

The global piracy rate for PC software was 42 percent in 2010. That is the second-highest global piracy rate BSA has found in the eight years it has been conducting annual studies with leading market research and forecasting firm IDC. In 2009, the global rate was 43 percent.

The regional piracy rate rose by 1 point in the Asia-Pacific region and in Latin America — two economic hotbeds of the developing world.

Seven PC users in 10 support paying innovators for their creations to promote more advances, while just three in 10 say no one should control technologies that could benefit society.

Eight PC users in 10 say they value legal software over pirated software because it is more reliable and secure.

The most common form of software piracy is buying a single license for a program and installing it on multiple computers: 60 percent incorrectly think this is legal at home, and 47 percent think it is legal at work (including 51 percent in emerging economies).

“The software industry is doing everything it can to promote legal software use,” Holleyman said. “We need governments to step up their efforts on this issue by supporting public education efforts, enacting and enforcing strong intellectual property laws, and leading by example.”
Full copies of the 2010 BSA Global Software Piracy Study are available for download, along with videos about the study’s methodology and findings, on BSA’s website: www.bsa.org/globalstudy.

I bet the most pirated software would be the Windows.item. If only M$ would price them reasonably, people would have fork out the cash and buy the legit version.

Scott

Exactly! Why are there 3 different “versions” of Windows 7? All with an increasing price tag… Give me all the features and eye candy you ALREADY paid for and sell it for $100 and I’ll gladly buy a legit copy. Same goes for Microsoft office. I’m a college student and I can’t afford a $300+ suite just to type papers and do projects. Just make it a reasonable price and stop getting greedy and I’ll actually legally purchase your product.

Alexander530

And those buying it are just as worse I would think.

http://profiles.google.com/hoover.garrett Garrett Hoover

Prices are too high?

/rationalized

Anonymous

If you build your own computer with a legit windows, you’ll known you have been jipped. That’s because a retail PC with a similar specification and an OEM Windows would always cost you less.

Anonymous

You have such ridiculous arguments. The retail PC manufacturer is buying in bulk so they get discounts for the parts as well as the software because they are making commitments to their suppliers for large orders. That’s how business works. Start building two million computers and you’ll get the same price.

I’m actually surprised its not higher. I don’t think I know anyone that actually buys software unless it a company.

http://twitter.com/Farbulus Mason A. Farber

I wonder how much of this is from CS5.

Anonymous

This sucks big time (and, I don’t mean like Bringit and Macboy when they hang out [no pun intended])!!
Does this mean that that copy of Windows 7 I bought on Craigslist is a bootleg? I’m calling Lenny back and demanding my $10 back!!!

http://zealus.com/ zealus

I think we are all civilized people here and we all can agree on these two things – stealing is bad and this report is a pile of dog’s poo.

“While the number of PCs shipped to emerging economies in 2010 accounted
for more than 50 percent of the world total, paid software licenses in
emerging economies accounted for less than 20 percent of global sales.”

Which means what exactly? People prefer transferring existing licenses to new hardware? They prefer open-source so they don’t have to pay for every manufacturer’s whim? Are those paid licenses include Mac OS X? What about OEM installs?

“Six years ago, the commercial value of software piracy in emerging
economies accounted for less than one-third of the world total. Last
year, at $32 billion, it accounted for more than half.”

What exactly is this “commercial value of software piracy”? According to some sources BSA computes it as total cost of all licenses for pirated software. In other words if people in Krakozia stole 1000 copies of Amoeba Protoshop that costs $100 per license, BSA thinks that total commercial value of piracy in Krakozia is $100K. Which is obviously absurd, because highest income in Krakozia is $10 per year, which means there is no market for $100K worth of software.

“Seven PC users in 10 support paying innovators for their creations to
promote more advances, while just three in 10 say no one should control
technologies that could benefit society.”

How does one contradict the other? It’s just that Krakozians, while supporting paying for creations can hardly justify paying 10 year’s worth of income for single license to software that will be obsolete in 3 years.

And this is the most hilarious of all:
“Eight PC users in 10 say they value legal software over pirated software because it is more reliable and secure.The most common form of software piracy is buying a single license
for a program and installing it on multiple computers: 60 percent
incorrectly think this is legal at home, and 47 percent think it is
legal at work (including 51 percent in emerging economies).”

So when something is paid for once – it’s insecure and unreliable, but once you’ve paid for exactly same thing fifty times – it magically becomes stable and secure… How interesting…

Anonymous

Msft is being robbed of billions. I am going to guess $40 billion is msft software.
Dam msft is being robbed out of about $12 billion in net profits.
wow!

Sch

Stealing removes the original, piracy makes a copy… These BSA pricks would actually rather have us steal software, because that would mean less copies, and that all copies would be paid for.

I always wonder why they never publish profits, so we can see the percentage they “lose”.

Also, they never mention the fact that early pirates become proficient at using that software. Thus future employers will BUY that software and generate profit. Also, I know of two cases of pirates who were ultimately employed by adobe/ms because they were really good at their respective software.

Matthew

I wonder how much the CEO and the rest of the BSA people make a year to tell the world what most of us already know lol.

Jesster King

#1: not everyone would be able to purchase whatever the bootlegged to begin with.
#2: You know how computers don’t come with install discs anymore? Many people use a torrent to get one, so they technically didn’t steal it.
#3: I would bet a days pay that that valuation is a maximum amount, if forced to buy their OS they could get a cheaper OEM version that doesn’t allow upgrades.
#4: Would Microsoft rather have someone use Linux and other open source products or use a pirated version of their software?

http://profiles.google.com/hoover.garrett Garrett Hoover

To me, this is is more of a broken system than a mass piracy problem. When Linux is free and OSX is $30, Windows’ ridiculous ~$200 price isn’t justified. $60 videogames push the piracy even further. Business Software Alliance’s estimate of $59b isn’t completely reliable either. Just because someone pirated 3-4 $60 games doesn’t mean that they didn’t also buy the software to support the developers.Business Software Alliance’s estimate of $59b isn’t completely reliable either. Just because someone pirated 3-4 $60 games doesn’t mean that they didn’t also buy the software to support the developers.

Anonymous

Piracy has been around forever, and isn’t showing any signs of stopping. Therefore, these damn companies should put their time and money towards the products instead of worrying about how many people pirated their product.

I don’t think price has anything to do with it. Snow Leopard’s $30, yet people still torrent it. iPhone apps are just $1, but people still pirate them.

Anonymous

Where does the money come from to devote towards the products if no one is paying for the products?

Anonymous

What do you mean no one is paying for the products? They’re still getting plenty of sales.

Anonymous

If your employer decided to pay you for half the hours you worked, would you say to yourself, “That’s no problem, I’ll just focus on the money I did make and not care about the unpaid hours. I’m still making money”?

Anonymous

Piracy has been around forever, and isn’t showing any signs of stopping. Therefore, these damn companies should put their time and money towards the products instead of worrying about how many people pirated their product.

I don’t think price has anything to do with it. Snow Leopard’s $30, yet people still torrent it. iPhone apps are just $1, but people still pirate them.

Anonymous

gee, the “market” has spoken then!
in the US, the corporations buy congress to make laws that define the “free market” as the market whereby the corporations are “free” to charge what they want, even in monopolistic sectors.
In the rests of the world, especially these ” world’s fastest-growing markets” are mostly third world or developing countries where a dollar is still a dollar and not a nickle, the market is how people make it.
Look at russia, china, india, middle east, etc… DVD movies are $4 for brand new, and the laws there allow you to make copies!

The more you squeeze your grip Tarkin, the more will slip thru.

I’m not justifying it, but having live in the eastern and western world, this is my observation.

Admit your Sins!

I get pretty angry when I see all the idiots here trying to rationalize their thefts because what they want is more than they want to pay. I want a Lear jet but I don’t want to pay more than $1000 for it. Therefore it is OK to steal one, it was Lears fault for charging too much.

Now someone will say that S/W is “different” because they are just copying it and not stealing someone elses copy. If 100 S/W engineers worked for 2 years to make this program and 90 people steal it and 10 buy it, what do you think happens to the price? To get the same returns, the company must charge 10X.

To have integrity, the user should say that the product is not worth buying it and do without until a lower cost one is available. The market will match the demand. By pirating a copy, they almost guarantee no one will be creating a low cost competitor.

I have to go watch some great Chinese and Russian movies now since their thriving movie industries are so innovative with their $4 and unlimited copy products. Oh wait, the quality movies selling there are not locally created? I wonder why?